


Moonlight and New Beginnings

by iatethebiscuit



Category: Timeless (TV 2016)
Genre: F/M, because who is happy with that, it sure is not me, series finale fix-it
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-25
Updated: 2019-04-25
Packaged: 2020-01-31 20:58:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,041
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18599293
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/iatethebiscuit/pseuds/iatethebiscuit
Summary: While the team seems fine with leaving Flynn in 2012 to die, Lucy doesn't agree.





	Moonlight and New Beginnings

_My dear Lucy,_

_If you’re reading this I guess I didn’t make it back. Maybe that’s for the best when you think about what I’ve done in the past. To the team, to you. We both wanted to stop Rittenhouse, but somehow you didn’t let it destroy you the way I did. So if anyone’s expendable in this team, it’s me. Tell Rufus he can thank me later. I have to admit, I don’t hate the guy._

_I regret the pain I caused you, Lucy. And maybe by doing this I can find a small way to make things right so you can get the future you deserve. I know with time you’ll forgive Wyatt because you’ll love him, and deep down you know he was just trying to do the right thing._

_I hope you get everything you want in life. I hope you can be happy. And one day I hope you’ll get to have a family of your own. And I hope you get your sister back. There’s some things in the journal… I never could figure them out, but it’s led us this far. One good thing in my life, the one thing I couldn’t hate after I lost my family. Never give up trying to save the world from Rittenhouse and then maybe you can save the ones you love._

_Well, guess I’ll see you Christmas eve 2014. You know the place._

_All my love,_

_Flynn_

She read through the letter for the tenth time, the stairs to the lifeboat cold against her back. She overheard the others vaguely. He’d died back in 2012, alone, scared. They lifted their glasses in a toast, and she looked at them with disgust. They gave him up, just like that. While everyone had jumped on board with saving Rufus, Flynn was just… left to die. It didn’t sit right with her. Their relationship was complicated, and maybe she would end up with Wyatt, but leaving Flynn rotting on a beach… It wasn’t right. It wasn’t right at all.

She looked up when Wyatt sat down next to her, offering her a glass of whatever they were drinking. Whisky, probably. Connor loved the stuff, probably to an excessive degree.

“He was a hero.” Wyatt said. “In the end.”

Lucy took a sip from her glass, the liquid burning her throat as it went down. Her heart was heavy, and she was almost hesitant to answer.

“He was a hero long before that. We shouldn’t have let him go.”

“Maybe, but he did go. It was his own choice, Lucy, don’t blame yourself.”

She huffed. “I don’t blame myself. Or maybe I do. He died so you and I could have a future, after all that happened. He always let me make my own choices, but he took this one away from me.”

Wyatt sighed. “He read the journal.” He said. “He knows what was going to happen. Maybe he wanted to spare you the pain of loving him.”

He tried to put his arm around her, but she shrugged it off. “Don’t, Wyatt.” She said, her tone more clipped than before. “Loving him was never a pain. And don’t talk about sparing me pain like you haven’t treated me like a back-up all last year.”

He frowned. “That’s not fair. My wife came back from the dead, she told me she was pregnant, I couldn’t just abandon her because of one night in Hollywood.”

Her eyes widened, and she looked over at him. “One night in Hollywood? That’s all it was to you?”

“No, I didn’t mean that, I…”

“Oh, I think it was exactly what you meant.”

She got up, stalking away from him to dump the rest of her whiskey in the sink. She loved them, both of them, in different ways. They’d made it into this insane love triangle, but Wyatt had always been the one to make her choose. Flynn had given her space. He’d been there for her, on her terms. Her vision blurred, and she wiped at her eyes angrily. Now he was gone.

“Hey, that was a good year.” Connor said to her, his tone almost accusing at the waste of whiskey.

She whirled around. “How can you all be okay with this? You stand here and act like this has to be permanent when we have a _time machine_ right there! We could go back, we could save him!”

She was hurting, and the looks of pity in her friends’ eyes didn’t make the fire inside her dim whatsoever.

“He chose to see his family again, even if it meant death. We have to respect that.” Denise said gently.

“That’s bullshit and you know it. Rufus chose to get Jiyah out of that bar even if it meant dying, we sure as hell didn’t respect that. What makes this any different?”

Rufus looked down, almost in shame. She looked around the group, trying to find support, back-up.

“Screw it, I’m going.” She said. The decision formed inside her like steel. “I’m not letting him die alone on some cold beach somewhere. You should all be ashamed of yourselves.”

Wyatt grabbed her arm as she stalked to the lifeboat. “Lucy, don’t do this, please. It’s dangerous.”

She wrenched herself loose, the contact only adding to her fury. “So is every other mission we’ve been on.” She said. “We still went. He’s part of our team, and we don’t leave people behind. I dragged you home from the Alamo, I’m not treating him any different.”

“She’s right.”

Lucy looked up at Rufus in surprise.

“He brought me back, it’s wrong to let him die there.”

Lucy nodded. This was the right thing to do.

“No.” Wyatt said. “I won’t stand for this.”

“Then don’t.” She replied coldly. “I don’t care how you feel about this, Wyatt. I’m going, end of discussion.”

She didn’t look back as she went to the lifeboat, and her fury only dimmed somewhat when Rufus closed the door. “It’s not technically our timeline, but we should be quick.” He said as he set the destination. “We don’t know what effects he’s already felt.”

She nodded, buckling her seatbelt. A knife twisted in her heart at the memory of Flynn helping her when she hurt her arm. The only time he’d ever taken over a task she could usually do herself.

“I’ll get him home.” She said, determined.

 

* * *

 

 

They landed roughly where his body had been found. It wasn’t exact, but it was the best they could do. She promised to call Rufus if there was any trouble (finally, their cellphones were useful on a trip). He stayed with the lifeboat as she set off down the beach, sticking to where the vegetation started. Rufus said he’d had grass in his hair on the photo.

She walked for 10 minutes, and she had almost given up on finding him alive, when she saw him sitting in the sand. A weight dropped off her shoulders. He was looking out over the ocean, hunched over, occasionally bending his head down as if he was in pain. Connor had mentioned the side effects. As she sped up to reach him, she knew this was the right decision. She couldn’t just let him die here, alone.

“It’s not good manners to leave a note like that and take off.” She said when she got close enough for him to hear.

He looked up at her, his expression unreadable. There was sorrow, intense sorrow, but also some shock. Something else she couldn’t quite pin down.

“Lucy.” His voice was soft, fragile. She’d always seen something like it inside him, but to see it so plain on the outside was jarring. “You came.”

His eyes squeezed closed for a moment. Pain. She sat next to him, close enough for their shoulders to touch. He was alive. That was all she cared about somehow.

“I didn’t want you dying alone.” She said.

He let out a dry chuckle. “Thank God you’re here for company.”

She smiled, bumping against him. Facing her emotions wasn’t her strong side, and right now she felt wholly overwhelmed. So much had happened. She knew she wasn’t ready to say goodbye, though. They sat like that for a few minutes, staring out over the sea. The moon cast a silver glow over the beach, and it was almost peaceful. Like nature hadn’t quite caught up to whatever was happening between them.

“Why didn’t you come back?” She asked.

It took him a little bit to respond. “I had to see my family again. Remember that there was a time I was happy. A time I had everything I wanted. We both read the journal, we knew what was going to happen. Partly I don’t think I wanted you to be chained to me. You should be with Wyatt, so I cleared the way. Partly I was selfish. I didn’t want to see you hate me, in the end.”

She was a little taken aback by his honesty. She looked over when he let out a soft groan, his face contorting. She had to get him out. On his own terms, though.

“I always admired that you gave me a choice.” She said. “That you trusted me to defend myself. To make the right decisions for me. Why was this different?”

He sighed, turning something over and over in his hands. His wedding ring. He was saying goodbye, in his own way. “I’ve seen you with Wyatt. I could see this mess was eating you up, and I couldn’t watch that. I couldn’t put you through that just so I could be happy for a few years.”

“Maybe I don’t want Wyatt anymore.” She said softly.

Another silence. She was painfully aware that time was ticking.

“You shouldn’t want me either. The things I’ve done, Lucy… You deserve someone better.”

She reached out, taking his hand in hers. It definitely wasn’t the first time she’d held his hand, but somehow it felt like it. A source of comfort for them both. Reassurance that the other was there, was okay. She squeezed it gently.

“I can’t promise you anything. Nobody can. But I feel safe with you, and after everything that’s happened, I think I deserve to feel safe.” She said. “I want you to feel safe with me.”

He looked at their joined hands as if they were his greatest dreams and worst nightmares in one. As if she could disappear at any second. His hand tightened around hers as another wave of pain hit, and her heart squeezed. They had to get out. On his terms.

He lifted her hand to his mouth slowly, pressing his lips to it. There was a sadness emanating from him. “Go home, Lucy. Be happy. Please.”

She looked over at him, really looked, for the first time since she sat down. He was hurt, there was blood on his face. He looked tired, his face heavy. She wanted to take him in her arms, hold him and take away everything that hurt him.

“Come home with me. Rufus is waiting at the lifeboat, we can take you home, get you patched up. Either you come with me or I stay here until the end, because there is no way in Hell I’m leaving you here alone.”

He smiled, a weak smile, but a smile nonetheless. There was a spark of something in his eyes. “I’m not who you want me to be, Lucy. I’m a murderer.”

“So am I.” She said. “Match made in heaven. I don’t care who you are, you’re hurt and I don’t… I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if I left you here. Let me save you. Just once.”

He considered it for a minute. It was the longest minute of her life. Honestly, if he didn’t agree, she’d call Rufus and knock him out herself so they could get him back. The thought of him alone in the cold, buried in a grave that didn’t even have his bloody name on it, was too much to handle. She had to protect him.

“Okay.” He said. “Together.”

She breathed a sigh of relief, pressing a kiss to his forehead by instinct.

“Together.”


End file.
